MARISOL MARTÍN GONZÁLEZ

MARISOL MARTÍN GONZÁLEZ

ERC Project: “Nano-tec”:

Providing a sustainable energy supply to the world’s population will become an important social problem for the 21st century. It is expected that thermoelectric materials, whose combination of thermal, electrical and semiconductor properties allow them to turn residual heat into electricity, will play an increasingly important role to face the energy challenge of the future. The proposal aims to generate an avant-garde project in the thermoelectric field and, if it is successful, a more efficient way of using energy.

Bio

I was born in Madrid in the early 70s, right in the “baby boom”. When I was little, I wanted to be a doctor or dancer (odd combination). My parents taught me that by working hard, I could be whatever I wanted, and they provided me with all the tools they could.

When I was a teenager, I wasn’t really sure what I wanted to be because I liked all sciences, until around the age of 16, when I crossed paths with a magnificent chemistry teacher. She was doing her PhD at the Madrid Autonomous University in her free time when she wasn’t teaching at the high school and she taught us the magic of chemistry. I remember one experiment where she put a lump of sodium (that looked like a chunk of plastic) in a container with water and how a strip of wet paper instantly went up in flames because the reaction between sodium and water is exothermic (it gives off a lot of heat). So, when I had to fill in my university application, I decided that I wanted to study chemistry at the Madrid Autonomous University and so became the first person from my family to go to university. That’s where I met the man who became my husband who has always helped me see the wood for the trees plus he helps me enjoy the little things in life on a daily basis.

When I finished my degree, specialising in Physical Chemistry, I met Miguel Ángel Alario who offered me the chance to do my PhD at the Complutense University on superconductor materials. He taught me that difficult things can be achieved, and impossible things can be attempted and that there are no limits in science if you don’t set them yourself.

When I finished my PhD, I went to the University of California in Berkeley (near to San Francisco, USA) where I spent three years working on nanostructuring of materials to improve energy efficiency. I remember that Angelica Stacy told me to enjoy this period as much as possible because it is one of the best periods in a scientist’s life. And she was right. You are completely free to research what you think is important, with none of the problems to get funding to do so.

I really enjoyed how they worked in the United States and I made great friends both inside the scientific world (with whom I am still working) and outside it (my American family).

When I returned to Spain, I met Fernando Briones who offered me a job on a European project that was a far cry from my prior experience. Nevertheless, it taught me to be interdisciplinary and to understand the different language that chemists and physicists use when they talk about the same topics.

I am still working at the CSIC Institute of Micro and Nanotechnology, merging everything that I have learnt over the different stages of my career to make materials more effective and attempting to understand both their chemistry and their physics.

Bio

I was born in Madrid in the early 70s, right in the “baby boom”. When I was little, I wanted to be a doctor or dancer (odd combination). My parents taught me that by working hard, I could be whatever I wanted, and they provided me with all the tools they could.

When I was a teenager, I wasn’t really sure what I wanted to be because I liked all sciences, until around the age of 16, when I crossed paths with a magnificent chemistry teacher. She was doing her PhD at the Madrid Autonomous University in her free time when she wasn’t teaching at the high school and she taught us the magic of chemistry. I remember one experiment where she put a lump of sodium (that looked like a chunk of plastic) in a container with water and how a strip of wet paper instantly went up in flames because the reaction between sodium and water is exothermic (it gives off a lot of heat). So, when I had to fill in my university application, I decided that I wanted to study chemistry at the Madrid Autonomous University and so became the first person from my family to go to university. That’s where I met the man who became my husband who has always helped me see the wood for the trees plus he helps me enjoy the little things in life on a daily basis.

When I finished my degree, specialising in Physical Chemistry, I met Miguel Ángel Alario who offered me the chance to do my PhD at the Complutense University on superconductor materials. He taught me that difficult things can be achieved, and impossible things can be attempted and that there are no limits in science if you don’t set them yourself.

When I finished my PhD, I went to the University of California in Berkeley (near to San Francisco, USA) where I spent three years working on nanostructuring of materials to improve energy efficiency. I remember that Angelica Stacy told me to enjoy this period as much as possible because it is one of the best periods in a scientist’s life. And she was right. You are completely free to research what you think is important, with none of the problems to get funding to do so.

I really enjoyed how they worked in the United States and I made great friends both inside the scientific world (with whom I am still working) and outside it (my American family).

When I returned to Spain, I met Fernando Briones who offered me a job on a European project that was a far cry from my prior experience. Nevertheless, it taught me to be interdisciplinary and to understand the different language that chemists and physicists use when they talk about the same topics.

I am still working at the CSIC Institute of Micro and Nanotechnology, merging everything that I have learnt over the different stages of my career to make materials more effective and attempting to understand both their chemistry and their physics.

ERC Project: “Nano-tec”:

Providing a sustainable energy supply to the world’s population will become an important social problem for the 21st century. It is expected that thermoelectric materials, whose combination of thermal, electrical and semiconductor properties allow them to turn residual heat into electricity, will play an increasingly important role to face the energy challenge of the future. The proposal aims to generate an avant-garde project in the thermoelectric field and, if it is successful, a more efficient way of using energy.